I promised I’d be back for New Years Eve, and here I am.
I won’t go into too much detail here, other than to reiterate that it has been an extremely interesting/challenging 2008 here at the Funky16Corners compound. Many a day – especially in the last month or so – has found me ready to pull up the drawbridge and flood the moat, but every time thoughts like that cross my mind, I remember the music.
Last week, just before Christmas when I was laying in a hospital bed, though my physical pain wasn’t too daunting, I was confronted with a great deal of psychological pain and uncertainty in regard to my health, my future and that of my family.
I was feeling pretty dire, until I popped on my headphones and started trawling through the iPod, and between Otis Redding, Mississippi John Hurt and Leon Russell, I was reminded of the healing power of great, soulful music.
That power is what has always kept me going, and is the driving force behind the blog(s).
I’m not saying that I expect everyone to get that much out of it, but one can always hope.
The mix above is a sampling of some of my favorite individual tracks from the past year, and I think you’ll agree that it’s been a good one. Lots of deep stuff here, and a lively enough selection that were you to whip it on your New Years Eve crowd they wouldn’t look at you like you have lobsters crawling out of your ears.
Despite the hassles, it’s been a good year, and hopefully 2009 will be even better.
Thanks to all of you that have taken the time to stop by and engage in the conversation.
I’ll be back on Monday.

I’m back, maybe not at full speed, but back nonetheless.
The tune I bring you today is as close as I could get to the kind of explosive emotion I feel like expressing these days.
Between health problems and other serious, pending issues, I feel like kicking a hole in the wall (or the internet, as applies).
I’m not sure whether I said it here or over at Iron Leg, but despite all of the alligators snapping at my ass these days, working on the blogs is less a chore than necessary therapy, through which I get to work out some of the crap I’m dealing with (if only in the abstract).
Sometime last year (two thousand and ought seven to be exact) DJ Save One fell by to do a guest set at the Asbury Park 45 Sessions, and in the course of his very heavy set dropped a 45 that knocked me on my ass. I had never heard the record in question, but as soon as I hopped up by the decks to scope it out it went right to the top of my wish list, where it remained until earlier this year.
That record – ‘Reach Out, I’ll Be There’ by Lee Moses (which just happens to have a blistering flip side as well) – is one of the rawest soul 45s I’ve ever heard, sounding (even in the context of Moses’ other work) vaguely insane. ‘Reach Out..’ is one of those incredibly unique records that cries out for its own poly-hyphenate description, with elements of soul, funk, psychedelia, and garage punk jammed together, and occasionally at odds with one another in a two minute and forty five second explosion of energy that threatens to shatter the styrene onto which it was pressed. It sounds as if it were all recorded via a single microphone, with drums (and break, after break, after break), combo organ, guitar (Moses I assume) and vibes cascading like a rock slide, with someone (Moses again?) singing just loudly enough to register in the background.
There’s the feel of an inspired jam session to both sides of the 45, but after repeated listens it appears to be something more than that. Some 45s are the end result of huge amounts of planning and polish, holding in their grooves miniature epics (see Phil Spector and all of his various and sundry disciples), and you get the feeling no matter how fine the craft, what you’re getting is the fiftieth iteration of a good idea. Others, like ‘Reach Out…’, or Toussaint McCall’s ‘Shimmy’ are more like an aural snapshot, capturing a specific moment in time that could probably never be duplicated. That these moments made their way onto wax and out where consumers might get their hands (and ears) on them is – depending on the level of brilliance – occasionally miraculous (definitely in this instance).
I hope you dig it as much as I do, and I’ll be back with something for New Years Eve.

Like the hero of some lame TV movie, I have been sprung from my hospital bed just in time for Christmas.
This’ll be quick, since I’m pretty tired, but the deal is this….
I was feeling sick for a couple of weeks after passing a positively titanic kidney stone (the latest in a long line of the same spread out over the last ten years or so). By late Saturday night, things came to a head and a I figured that as soon as Sunday morning arrived, I’d make a trip to the local Emergency Room.
Good thing I did, because after a few tests it was apparent that my kidneys were not functioning correctly, and after a CT scan it was revealed that one of my kidneys was not functioning at all and probably hadn’t been for quite some time (I believe the experts refer to it as acute renal failure).
The doctor said that if I’d waited a little bit longer I would have ended up on dialysis. As is, I spent four days in the hospital, getting probed, tested and drained, and as a result my one “good” kidney appears to be up and running again (though I will have to go back in to have another rather large stone removed in a few weeks).
Like I said before, I’ve been dealing with kidney stones for a long time, and had come to the point where I kind of figured it was my lot to suffer through them as they appeared, and move on with my life.BIG MISTAKE…If you are unfortunate enough to experience kidney stones, get thee to a urologist post haste and find out why (they are occurring). If I’d done that, I might still have two kidneys to work with, instead of one, which I will now have to handle with kid gloves for the rest of my life.
No matter though, because although I’m tired, I’m not really in any pain and nothing is more satisfying than being home to spend Christmas Eve with my wife and sons, and Christmas with the rest of my family.
That said…I only return to you this evening because I had already digi-ma-tized and uploaded these selections specifically for Christmas, and they ought not go to waste.
I’d like to thank everyone that stopped by in the previous thread to send your good wishes. It really warmed my heart (which as far as I can tell is still healthy) to see those sentiments (read via my cell phone*) while I was trapped in a hospital bed, watching stupid reality TV and eating lame hospital grub.
The tunes I bring you today are of course by the man that I consider to be the greatest soul singer of all time, Otis Redding. These two amazing performances – one melancholy, one upbeat – both happed to have appeared on opposite sides of one very good 45.
I hope you dig the tunes, and (though I’ll be running from doctor to doctor next week) I’ll probably be posting something for New Years.

Peace, Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!

Larry

*I didn’t actually make that last post from the hospital. I dictated it to my lovely wife and walked her through posting it over the phone.

PS I’m not sure if the Christmas show I did for Viva Internet Radio is going to be on tomorrow night. It wasn’t completed when I went into the hospital, and I may have missed the deadline…

I wasn’t originally planning on posting something to end the week, but I was suddenly overcome with the need to offer up something thunderous and slightly ragged in an attempt to offset the black cloud that’s been following me around.
The little atom bomb I’m about to whip on you comes from an unlikely source (the garbage man from ‘Chico & the Man’, caretaker from ‘The Shining’ and last but not least the voice of Hong Kong Phooey), Mr. Scatman Crothers.Back in 1966 the Scatman (originally a musical performer, thus the ‘Scatman’ nickname) whipped out a 45 for the legendary and legendarily diverse HBR label (also home to the Unrelated Segments, Guilloteens, and for a brief time the 13th Floor Elevators), and despite what you might have thought, it is a boneshaking, hip-swivelling, proto-headbanging slice of hardcore R&B cum soul that seems as if it were recorded during a crank/Viagra bender. I may be going out on a limbe here, but I’d be willing to say that ‘Golly Zonk! (It’s Scatman)’ reaches levels of intensity not unlike tunes like ‘Shimmy’ by Toussaint McCall. I’d love to know who it is wailing away on the organ.

If you don’t believe me, pull down the ones and zeros and prepare for cerebral demolition. This is the kind of record you put on at the exact moment you realize that your party has gotten out of hand, and that you couldn’t actually give a shit.Solid stuff.

I’ll see you all on Monday with some Christmas action.

Peace

Larry

PS I’m pretty sure that ‘Golly Zonk!’ was the B-side here, as the flip was a tune Scatman did for a 1966 animated musical version of ‘Alice In Wonderland’, in which the Cheshire Cat was played by Sammy Davis Jr. (and NO, I’m not making that up)

It’s time for a Hammond Organ Special!
Fall by the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radioreturns tonight – Thurs 12/18 at 9PM – for its fifth edition. The show will play at 9PM, and will be archived thereafter at the Funky16Corners Radio Show Page(where you can hear several shows if you haven’t checked it out yet).
Next week is the Funky16Corners Radio Show Christmas Special! So get down with the Funky16Corners Radio Show.

Peace
Larry

PS I’ll be back either Thursday night or Friday morning with a hot new tune for the weekend!

I hope all is well on your end.I wish I could say the same…I have been having physical problems for the last week or so (nothing tragic, but sick enough to lose interest in most interesting stuff), as well as dealing with some serious family responsibilities that oddly enough reared their head just about this same time last year.
I am – thank Jeebus – still employed, but even that is of little consolation (until you turn on the news and realize how bad things really are).
Anyhoo…I missed my first Asbury Park 45 Sessions this past Friday (my first MIA in almost two years), and I spent most of the day on Saturday engaged in a little restorative vegetation.
It was in the midst of said lollygagging that I happened to be perusing the old hard drive, and then our friendly neighborhood mail carrier arrived with a record (as he so often does) and the deal – as they say – was sealed.
Ever since I started doing the Funky16Corners Radio Show over at Viva internet radio, I’ve been much more careful about gathering and sorting my digi-ma-tized material. As I was flipping through the folders, I just happened to notice that I had a number of covers of James Brown songs in the to-be-blogged area, and I started to copy them into a folder, with the intention of someday making them into a mix.
Then the mailman showed up with yet another, and after a touch of brainstorming, during which I plunged briefly into the crates to pull out a few more sides, I sat down with the turntable and the laptop, and set to work (though I would hardly describe sitting at the dining room table with headphones on as “work”).
When I was done, I had the mix you see before you, and I had an excuse to take most of the week off to concentrate on, and attend to what the crate diggerati describe as “real world moves”.
A couple of these songs have appeared in this space before, a few as individual tracks and others as part of themed mixes.
My hope is that the new context will forgive the recycling.
Things get rolling with a great version of ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’ by my all time fave soul singer, the master Otis Redding. I think you’ll agree that he did a fine job.
Next up is the only JB ‘protégé’ in the group, pianist Dee Felice and his trio with a slamming take (the first of four in this mix) on ‘There Was a Time’. I have a few other versions of this tune not included in this mix, and I remember at one time contemplating an all ‘There Was a Time Mix’, but eventually thought better of it (especially since I don’t have the Soul Searchers version yet).
Next up is the wholly awesome Jamaican re-working of the Godfather’s ‘Make It Funky’, recast by Shark Wilson and the Basement Heaters as ‘Make It Reggae’.
Most folks are certainly familiar with Cannibal & the Headhunters epic reading of Chris Kenner’s ‘Land of 1000 Dances’ (in which they introduced the ‘NA, NA NA NA NA’S), but I suspect only the Brown Eyed Soul aficionados among you have heard their take on ‘Outta Sight’.
If you’re not hep to the sounds of Albert King, get down to the Record Barn and grab some of the heat he laid down for the Stax label. Like Little Milton and Freddy King, Albert created a soulful strain of the blues, and was often backed by the Stax house band when doing so. His smoking version of ‘Cold Sweat’ was released as the B-side of a 1970 Stax 45.Dick Hyman is a name well known to jazzbos, and Easy fans as well. He spent a lot of the 60s experimenting with Moog synthesizers for Enoch Light’s various labels. His version of ‘Give It Up (Or Turn It Loose)’ is something of an acquired taste (which I’ve acquired), and should be listened to repeatedly. Whoever’s working the drums is setting a very tasty groove amongst the various bleeps and bloops of the moog.
The Mar-Key’s are best known for their hit ‘Last Night’, one of the earliest hits for the Stax label. Their James Brown medley comes from their 1966 LP on Atlantic.
The Hammond stylings of Mr Truman Thomas are a big fave hereabouts, and first and foremost among them is his wailing version of ‘Cold Sweat’.
Speaking of Funky16Corners faves, they don’t get any fave-er than Richard Evans’ Soulful Strings. Their take on ‘There Was a Time’ is from their live LP.
I recently picked up a very groovy LP by the late Byron Lee and his Dragonaires. ‘Reggay Hot & Cool’ includes both his reworking of ‘Hot Pants’ (entitled) ‘Hot Reggay’, with some very cool flute, and a smooth version of the theme from ‘Shaft’.
The version of ‘There Was a Time’ by Jerry-O namechecks another Chitown cover of that particular song, by (as Jerry refers to him) Gene Chandler ‘The Woman Handler’. It’s definitely one of Jerry-O’s funkier sides for White Whale.
Next up is yet another version of that very tune, by guitarist/comedian Jimmy Lynch. The 45 (on LaVal, the same label that brought you Chick Willis’ ‘Mother Fuyer’) has some questionable fidelity, sounding as if it was recorded surreptitiously, but the power of the tune shines through.
We close things out with a return to the laboratory of Mr Enoch Light, with a surprising tasty version of ‘Hot Pants’ by the Brass Menagerie. This is the record that the mailman dropped off, and brother it was worth the wait. Though Light’s albums were clearly intended for Hi-Fi nuts, the bands he worked with were the cream of the studio crop, and often enough they craned out some funky stuff (breaks for days and what not).
I hope you dig the mix, and I may or may not be back on Friday.Peace
Larry

Greetings all.
A littlw while back, Mr. Double Down over at the Hook and Slingblog inquired if I might be interested in once again gracing that spot with another guest mix.
The Hook and Sling-ers are fine folks, so naturally I responded in the affirmative.
The result is something that I’d been wanting to do for Funky16Corners for a long time, but as it worked out, the hour-long Northern style amalgamation will be dropping at Hook and Sling instead.
There are some old faves, and some stuff you might not know. You should make sure to fall by and check it out.I think you’ll dig it.Me? I just got back from a visit with my physician, who – believe it or not – told me to chill on the whole “burning the candle at both ends” thing, so I’ll be absent until this Friday.

Also, last but certainly not least, assuming that I have recovered sufficiently, I’ll be spinning this Friday (12/12) at the Asbury Park 45 Sessions at the World Famous Asbury Lanes. The whole AP45 crew will be bringing the heat, as will returning guest selector Cool Hands Luke! I hope to see you there.
Until then…Peace

An actual chameleon (my son Miles’ fave animal, next to armadillos). I recorded this track months ago and didn’t realize until now that I never took a pic of the label.

“Listen – Eddie Jefferson – Chameleon – MP3″

Greetings all. Here we are at the beginning of yet another week. Today I bring you something tasty by one of the greats of jazz vocal, Mr. Eddie Jefferson. Often cited as the father of vocalese (applying lyrics to jazz solos), Jefferson recorded several albums during the 50s and 60s for Riverside, and in the 70s for Muse. Jefferson – like many great singers – may not have had what you would consider a classically fine voice, but he was expressive and inventive, and always right on the groove. Though he started during the bop era, he always managed to stay hip and current, as can be evidenced in his 1968 version of Horace Silver’s ‘Psychedelic Sally’, the 45 of which changes hands amongst crate diggers for several hundred dollars*. Jefferson spent much of the 70s working with Trenton NJ’s own, saxophonist Richie Cole. The tune I bring you today is from one of his last albums, 1976s ‘Still On the Planet’. Jefferson’s vocalese-ation of Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon”** is a great bit of jazz funk, with Jefferson in rare form, aided by his band (led by Cole). Sadly, only a few years after this album, while exiting a club in Detroit (with Cole at his side), Jefferson was shot and killed. He was only 61. I hope you dig the tune.

Peace

Larry

PS I have a guest mix dropping Tuesday over at Hook and Sling. Make sure you fall by their site and check it out (as well as their own excellent mixes).

*I don’t know if this is the rarest Prestige 45, but it has to be in the top five. I’ve never scored a copy myself, but a friend of mine scored one while we were out digging once (lucky bastard…)

5. Syndication now!

6. DONATE

About

Welcome to the FUNKY16CORNERS Blog (new edition). I have been writing about music in various forms (zines, newspapers, e-zines, blogs) since the mid-80's. The Funky16Corners blog started in November of 2004 to focus on funk and soul vinyl. Since mid-2006, in addition to individual MP3 tracks, I have been posting mixes under the title Funky16Corners radio. Most MP3s and mixes will be available for a few weeks.
You can also check out the Funky16Corners WebZine.
You can contact me at funky16corners AT gmail DOT com (you get the drift...)

Facebook

Blog Stats

2,304,985 hits

Disclaimer

The musical samples posted on this blog are for educational purposes only. If you dig the cut, support the artist by picking up a CD. Sound files will be available for a week (less if bandwidth issues arise) or until I decide to remove them (whichever comes first). If you need a file removed please let us know.
All contents copyright 2009, Larry Grogan / Funky16Corners